The Netherlands Outgun Great Britain To Reach Women's Olympic Hockey Final

Tokyo: The Netherlands is just one victory away from being in possession of the World, European, FIH Hockey Pro League and Olympic titles after producing yet another dazzling display at the Oi Hockey Stadium, overpowering Rio 2016 gold medallists Great Britain 5-1 in this morning’s first semi-final. It is a fifth successive Olympic final for the Oranje, giving them a chance to claim their fourth Olympic crown. 

The Netherlands’ opponents in the gold medal match will be the winner of this evening’s second semi-final between Argentina and surprise package India, which takes place at 3.30 pm Las Leonas are aiming to reach the Olympic final for a third time, having claimed silver at both the Sydney 2000 and London 2012 Olympic Games. India’s sensational 1-0 quarter-final triumph over Pool B winners Australia provides enough evidence that they should not be underestimated.  

Great Britain made a superb start to the contest and fully matched the top-ranked team in world hockey throughout the first quarter, with the defences of both teams impressing before the Dutch took a stranglehold on the game in the second period with two goals in 60 seconds. Rising star Felice Albers slotted home after Laurien Leurink carved open the British defence, with Marloes Keetels smashing home a second with a thumping hit from the top of the circle that gave GB goalkeeper Maddie Hinch little hope of saving. 

The Netherlands kicked on further in the third quarter thanks to a sliding penalty corner deflection from Maria Verschoor and a second for Albers, who showed her predatory instincts to attack a cross from the left and guide her touch into the roof of Great Britain’s goal to take the score to 4-0. Giselle Ansley pulled a goal back for Great Britain with a deflected penalty corner before competition top scorer Frederique Matla put the game to bed, netting a penalty corner for her ninth goal in seven matches. 

While Great Britain can no longer defend the title they won in 2016, they still have a chance to claim a third successive Olympic medal (bronze - London 2012, gold – Rio 2016) on Friday 6 August when they take on either Argentina or India in the bronze medal match at 10:30 JST. 

"England (Great Britain) put a lot of pressure on us in the first quarter and we had to invest a lot of time and energy on creating space for us to play the game that we needed to play and I think we did that very well", said Netherlands coach Alyson Annan in the post-match press conference. "We welcomed the pressure, which is a very positive thing for us to be welcoming pressure in a semi-final. Once we opened the game up, scored two quick goals in the second quarter we were at our game and played very well for the rest of the match."

Great Britain's Hannah Martin said: “We are disappointed. We wanted to keep it tight as long as we could and unfortunately, those two goals came in quite a quick succession. We knew we could get it back but unfortunately, it wasn’t to be today.”
It was a milestone match for Great Britain’s Shona McCallin, who today made her 100th international appearance.